Apparatus for recovering easily-fusible metals



' By Attorneys, nmmfi w M? Filed Nov. 16, 1928 W. F. EPPENSTEINER ET AL APPARATUS FOR RECOVERING EASILY FUSIBLE METALS Oct. 13, 1931.

Oct. 13, 1931. w. F. EPPENSTEINER ET AL 1,826,755

APPARATUS FOR RECOVERING EASILY FUSIBLE METALS Filed Nov, 16, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Mm yyvramogs; Wmr MW By Attorneys,

@namm Patented Oct. 13, 1931 UNITED STATES WILLIAM F. EPPENSTEINER AND HARRY MORECRAFT, 0E RAHWAY, NEW JERSEY,-

PATENT OFFICE- ASSIGNORS TO, UNITED STATES METALS REFINING- COMPANY, OF CARTERET, NEW JERSEY, A CQRPORATION OF NEW JERSEY APPARATUS FOR RECOVERING EASILY-FUSIBLE METALS Application. filed November 16, 1928. Serial No. 319,856.

melting point. Specifically, the invention is.

particularly designed and adapted for the fusing (or so-called sweating out) of solder from various structures in which it has I been used; for the purpose both of recovering the solder and of freeing the metal of such structure from the presence of solder. The invention finds its immediate application in the treatment of radiators such as are used in motor cars and other apparatus using internal combustion engines of the watercooled type, the object in such cases being to recover the solder and to free the copper, brass, or other alloy of which the radiator is mainly composed, of solder, so that it may be melted down to be refined as copper or re-made into brass, bronze, or other alloy.

According to the invention, the articles to be handled (hereinafter for convenience called radiators) are introduced at one end of a long trunk forming a furnace chamber, throughwhichhot gases of combustion are circulated, the radiators being carried along on any suitable conveyors, such as endless chains, and preferably turned over once or oftener during their progress, and finally fed out through a liquid seal: the heat is so regulated as to fuse the solder without melting down or impairing the radiators, and the solder is caught in a suitable pan and tapped I out into any desired receptacle. The apparatus is so designed as to enable it to be enclosed i so as to exclude air and so that the combus- Fig. 2 is a side elevation, partly in vertical section.

Fig. '3 is a horizontal'section, mainly on the line 3 3 in Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a transverse section on the lines 4-4 in Figs. 1 and 2. I

Fig. 5 is a vertical transverse section on the lines 5-5 in Figs. 1, 2 and 3.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary vertical section on the line 66' in Fig. 3.

Fig. 7 is a fragmentary plan of a portion of a suitable construction of chain conveyor. 7 Referring to the drawings, A is the outer casing or body of the entire apparatus, and B is a furnace, preferably built on at the side of the casing A, the combustion being controlled by any suitable construction of dampers, as is well known in furnaces, and the furnace being adapted to burn solid fuel, liquid fuel. such as crude oil, or any form of gaseous fuel. It is shown with grate bars a for burning solid fuel, and with feed doors I) through which such fuel may be introduced. As shown in Fig. 4, the flames or hot gases of combustion from the fire on the hearth circulate upwardly within the furnace and then pass laterally through a flue or opening 0 into a chamber d in the main casing or trunk A. this chamber being formed by a horizontal partition or floor e therein. From the chamber d the gases circulate through the elongated chamber formed with in the main trunk to the farther end thereof,

and then circulates back along the bottom, as

shown by arrows in Fig. 1, to a flue 7 shown best in Fig. 6, through which they pass out laterally and ascend the stack C.

The radiators or other metallic structures to behandled are introduced at the righthand end of the trunk in Fig. 1, a platform 9 being provided for the operator, and the radiators being slid down a chute it through an opening closed by a swinging door z' which drops back and closes the opening after each radiator is pushed through. Within the trunk A is a constantly-traveling conveyor D which is best constructed as an endless chain conveyor. It receives the radiators dropped onto it from the slide 72. and carries them along to the left in Fig. 1, where at its end I it drops them onto a second conveyor E,

which in turn carries them along in the same direction and drops them into a hopper F in a water seal G maintained in a tank H. Under the open bottom of the hopper F is a third conveyor I which receives the radiators and carries them along under the hopper, and then upward out of the water bath, as is clearly apparent from Fig. 1.

The conveyors D, E, I, are best made as chain conveyors, a suitable construction being shown in Fig. 7, where j, j, are links which are jointed together by rods in, and Z are rollers which for convenience are loosely pivoted on the rods is so to turn freely thereon and form anti-friction rollers for the chain conveyor. The links 3', j, and rollers Z, are duplicated at the opposite side, so that the whole structure forms a double chain conveyor. The rods 70 extend through from side to side and constitute a sort of ladder for receiving the radiators and carrying them along. If in any case the rods 76, 7c, are not sufficiently close together, other rods such as m, m, may be introduced at any suitable intervals, so that they are close enough together to properly support the radiators not only in their assembled condition as first introduced, but equally as they may drop into small sections or fragments which separate as the solder uniting them is melted out.

The ladder-like conveyor chain D is carried at opposite ends over sprocket Wheels 72, 71 (Figs. land 3), these sprockets being mounted in pairs on shafts p, 79, respectively;

' power has to be applied to one or both these shafts p, p, in order to cause the chain to travel through the furnace chamber at an appropriate speed. The precise speed will of course depend on the temperature in the furnace and the fusibility of the solder or other material to be separated. Likewise, the lad der chain E is similarly mounted at opposite ends on sprockets 1 q, ihese being shown in dotted lines in Fig. 3. and these sprockets are carried on shafts 'r, 9, respectively. either or both of which are driven by suitable power and at a speed which should approximate that of the chain D. A suitable driving means is shown in Fig. where an electric motor lVI drives through reducing gearing a shaft 7', which shaft carries the sprocket of a drive chain s engaging a similar sprocket on the shaft 77 for driving the chain 1). The chains D, E, are supported by their rollers Z rolling on ledges or tracks t on opposite sides for the upper pass. and t for the lower or return pass: and these may be conveniently constructed of angle iron and located as shown in Figs. 5 and (i. The ladder chain 1 is carried by' opposite sprockets u, u, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, these being mounted on shafts n. which may also be driven by suitably applied power in manner analo gous to that described with reference to the radiators are delivered ofl from the conveyor D as it passes over the sprockets n, they are turned over and dropped onto the secondary conveyor E, resting thereon in an inverted position, or at any rate in a different position from that'originally occupied, so that any solder held by capillarity in interstices of the radiator will be jolted off and drained out, so that by the time the radiator is finally delivered from the conveyor E, it will have lost all. the solder that is recoverable. The solder which falls from the radiator or parts on the conveyor E is received in a secondary tray J (it being preferable to provide two trays, although one continuous tray might suflice).

The water tank G serves the double purpose of cooling the heated radiators and of constituting a seal to prevent inflowof air through the outlet into the furnace chamber or trunk. For this purpose the liquid should be kept above the lower supporting member an. the under side of which forms the top of the outlet opening. Thus, the admission of air to the furnace chamber isprevented, and thus is avoided the oxidizing of the solder, which in its molten condition and While dripping from the radiators, would be readily oxidizable.

The molten solder caught by the trays J, J. is drained fromthem either continuously or intermittently. This is conveniently done in the manner best shown in Fig. 5, where the tray J slopes to one side and there is connected to an outlet tap or tube 00 which passes out through the furnace wall and discharges into a sink K which in turn discharges through a tap y into a receiver L, being a vessel of any suitable construction. The space beneath the trays J, J, constitutes a flue or hot gas passage 2, and the circulation of the hot gases through this passage keeps the solder molten. so that it runs freely out through the tap In the collecting sink K it is desirable to keep the solder molten and to collect it until a sufiicient charge is accumulated to fill one of the receptacles L. To thus keep it molten an auxiliar furnace N (Fig. 2) is conveniently applied. the products of combustion from this passing out through a flue N. For tapping the molten solder from the tray J the same devices may be applied, the collecting sinks being lettered K. and the receptacle, L.

It will be understood that the trays J, J

(or a single tray serving the purposes of both) extend practically from end to end of the treatment chamber within the trunk A, so that these trays serve as a partition dividing such chamber and compelling the hot gases entering the chamber to flow in one direction (to the right in Fig. 1) through the chamber to near its opposite end, and thence to flow back under the partition toward the admission end, but lower down, where they are carried out through the flue f and stack C. While such flow of the gases might be accomplished by any suitable partitioning arrangement, yet it is preferable to utilize the trays J, J, for this purpose, since thereby the heat of the returning gases is availed of to keep the collected solder molten.

In the operation of the apparatus it is only necessary to so graduate the speed of the conveyors D, E, and the temperature of the products of combustion from the furnace B, as tomaintain in the main furnace chamber a flow of gases at a temperature sufliciently above the fusion point of solder to insure the complete fusion within the time of transit of all the solder, while keeping such temperatures below the fusing point of the copper, brass, or other metal of which the soldered structures, such as radiators, are formed; it is also necessary to so control the combustion as to maintain a slightly reducing atmosphere within the furnace chamber. The operator should be careful to see that the water level-in the tank G is kept high enou h to submerge the upper side w of the outlet or the solder-freed radiator parts.

The apparatus is not limited in its application to the melting out of easily-fusible metal, but may be applied for melting out and separating any easily-fusible material from the other less fusible members with which it is associated. The apparatus has been thoroughly tested in practical operation, and has been demonstrated to accomplish its purpose with great uniformity and as expeditiously as the nature of the work to be done will permit.

The construction may be more or less modified according to the judgment of those skilled in the art, and within the scope of the appended claims. While chain conveyors are preferred, yet any other type of conveyor may be used instead, provided it is suitably adapted to the articles to be handled. The articles under treatment may be "tumbled one or more times, as may be found desirable for any given work. While tipping them ofl from one conveyor to the other is the easiest, simplest, and most convenient way of turning them over, so 'as to provide a new position for the draining off of molten solder, yet the invention is not'to be understood as limited in this respect.

We claim as our invention 1. An apparatus for separating fusible material, comprising an elongated chamber,

back beneath the conveyor, and a sealed outlet from the chamber.

. 2. An apparatus comprising an elongated chamber, a furnace for supplying heated gases thereto, means for conveying articles to be treated through such chamber, and a tray for collecting the molten material dropping from the articles under treatment, such tray extending from the hot gas admission end of p the chamber toward the opposite end, and serving to direct the flow of gases over it through the articles under treatment and back under it to the outlet for such gases.

3. An apparatus for separating fusible material comprising an elongated chamber, means for circulating heated gases therethrough, an endless chain conveyor receiving articles fed to said chamber and carrying them along therein, a second endless chain' conveyor beneath the first receiving articles dumped from the first conveyor and delivering them to the outlet of the chamber, means for collecting the molten material fused from thearticles, a bath sealing the outlet from the chamber and receiving the articles from the chamber, and a conveyor discharging the articles from said bath.

4. An apparatus for separating fusible material comprising an elongated furnace chamber, endless chain conveyor means therein adapted to carry articles through said chamber, a bath sealing the outlet of said chamber and receiving the articles dropped from said conveyor, the furnace discharging hot gases into one end of said chamber, a tray within 

